Shift work and the demands of the job are compromising the safety of police officers and the communities they serve, a new study has concluded.
Professor of Psychology Peter Hassmen and Bachelor of Psychological Science with Honours student Rebecca Burgess, of Southern Cross University, surveyed 642 police officers nationally. Of these, 379 worked night shifts and 263 dayshifts.
The survey found that, regardless of the shift worked, 70 percent were rated as having moderate to extremely high stress levels and 60 percent were rated the same for burnout.
“Contrary to initial expectations, nightshift work did not significantly deteriorate sleep quality or intensify stress and burnout,” the authors said in a paper published last month in the Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology.
“These findings suggest that excessive workloads and stressful environments encountered by police officers may primarily drive the burnout process.”
The paper reported that earlier research suggested police officers were exposed to around 900 highly stressful and potentially traumatic events during their careers.
Globally, police retention rates were declining, and police services were struggling to recruit new officers.
Contributing factors were organisational stressors, including disturbed sleep.
The research report cited information released by the Queensland Police Service which showed annual attrition rates in the state had more than doubled from 2.7 percent to 5.7 percent.
The Southern Cross University survey revealed that 9.2 percent of participants scored in the normal category for stress, 21.3 percent had a “mild” stress range, 60.2 percent were considered moderately stressed, and 9.3 percent were in the severe or extremely severe category.
“Employees experiencing burnout are in a vicious cycle of absenteeism, reduced productivity and leaving their careers, the report said.
“This leaves the remaining employees to fill the job demands, leading to fatigue, mistakes, and themselves experiencing the onset or more severe levels of burnout.
“(This ultimately forces) those employees to find a way to cope, potentially entering the same vicious cycle.”
The authors said that if the Australian police force continued its current trajectory, then increasing numbers would leave the force to retire or pursue other careers.
This would result in even lower retention rates.
“Police officers’ workload, lack of autonomy at work and lack of perceived social support need urgent attention to reverse the trend towards accelerating turnover,” the report said.
“(The study suggests) the safety of police officers and the community is compromised by shift work and work demands.”
